first and last index as in matlab

[Beliavsky]

Evan wrote:
> In matlab I can do the following:
>
> >> ind = [3,5,7,2,4,7,8,24]
> ind = 3     5     7     2     4     7     8    24
> >> ind(1)      ans =     3
> >> ind(end)     ans =    24
> >> ind([1 end])      ans =      3    24
>
> but I can't get the last line in python:
>
> In [690]: ind = [3,5,7,2,4,7,8,24]
> In [691]: ind[0]    Out[691]: 3
> In [692]: ind[-1:]  Out[692]: [24]
> In [693]:  ??
>
> How do I pull out multiple indices as in matlab?

If you want functionality similar to Matlab in Python, you should use
Numpy, which has the "take" function to do what you want.